Despite flooding, pollution, Grand River rebounding, experts say

Recent flooding of the 263-mile-long Grand River led to runoff issues, sewage overflows and an increased awareness of the river’s significance to the region.

By Alex Doty

Holland Sentinel

By Alex Doty

Posted May. 4, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 4, 2013 at 4:17 AM

By Alex Doty

Posted May. 4, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 4, 2013 at 4:17 AM

Grand Haven

Recent flooding of the 263-mile-long Grand River led to runoff issues, sewage overflows and an increased awareness of the river’s significance to the region.

Once a main link for industry and communities, the Grand River is now a recreational destination for tourists and a backyard ecological paradise for countless homes and businesses dotting its riverbanks.

Although much work has been done through the years to clean up the river that runs through our city, the Grand still has a long way to go before it reclaims its former pristine status.

In the many years that humans and the river have coexisted, historian Wallace Ewing said that it was in recent history that some of the major pollution occurred.

“Clearly, the worst polluter would have been the leather tanning companies,” he said.
Local environmental experts say that despite longstanding contamination and recent flooding, the Grand is on the upswing.

“You can look at it from a lot of different points of view,” said Dan O’Keefe, an educator with Michigan Sea Grant. “The bottom line, from what’s going on in the Grand River, is positive.”
For more on this story, visit The Grand Haven Tribune.